


Well-Caffeinated

by patchfire, raving_liberal



Series: Story of Three Boys [71]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-07
Updated: 2012-08-07
Packaged: 2017-11-11 15:40:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/480120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patchfire/pseuds/patchfire, https://archiveofourown.org/users/raving_liberal/pseuds/raving_liberal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exchanging what was for what will be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Well-Caffeinated

Noah takes the last customer’s money, then fills a grande cup with coffee, puts the lid and the sleeve on it, and slides it across the counter. Not the last customer for the day, but Noah’s last customer, and his last customer in Lima. He starts to make himself an Americano, then shakes his head. Without the Americano, he can get in at least an hour of sleep before he picks up Kurt, and they might manage to get in another hour before Burt leaves work and the three of them start driving. 

When he turns to leave from behind the counter, he stops short, because Ms. Horatio and some of his co-workers are all standing around a cake, and Ms. Horatio grins. “We thought we’d give you a good send-off, Noah.”

That was apparently some kind of signal, because they start singing a somewhat off-key version of ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’ and then pressing him to cut the cake, which he does. When everyone’s had a piece, they start giving it out to some of the customers, and enough of them are regulars that questions start getting asked. 

“Why the cake?”

“Noah’s leaving us,” John answers. 

“Did you get a different job?” one of the other regulars asks. 

“No, I’m moving,” Noah explains. “College.”

“OSU?” another person guesses. Noah shakes his head. 

“Mannes. It’s a music conservatory that’s part of The New School, in New York City?” he explains, when ‘Mannes’ gets, as it usually does, a blank look. 

“Noah here was a member of the show choir that won Nationals,” Ms. Horatio boasts on his behalf, and there’s a few nods. 

It takes him at least thirty minutes to escape, and when he finally gets into the bedroom, he takes off his clothes from work, puts them into the laundry bag that’s going with them, and collapses onto the air mattress, setting his alarm for one hour. He dozes lightly for most of that hour before getting up and pulling on fresh jeans and a T-shirt, jogging down the stairs to go pick up Kurt. Like they’ve done all week, he walks quickly past Finn’s room, this time staring at his phone. Their theory seems to be that if they ignore it, it will hurt less, but Noah’s not sure it’s working.

Kurt climbs into the Nav and leans across the console to kiss Noah briefly. “Are we ready?” he asks. 

“Ready for a shower and another nap, maybe,” Noah concedes with a grin. “We’ve got, what, two and a half hours.” 

“And loading the Nav will take at least half an hour,” Kurt points out, but after the obligatory sprint past Finn’s empty room, they do curl up on the air mattress for another hour. 

When the hour’s up, Kurt takes the sheets off of it and puts them in the laundry while Noah deflates the air mattress and rolls it up, putting it back in the closet in the hall. They’re just getting out of the shower when Carole yells up the stairs. 

“Do you two want a snack? I know Burt said you were going to drive a bit before stopping for dinner, to break up the drive.”

“That’d be lovely, thank you!” Kurt calls back down, and the two of them get dressed and grab a few boxes as they head down the stairs. “In about fifteen minutes, maybe?” he says to Carole as they pass through the hallway and into the garage, where the Nav is waiting to be loaded. 

“Okay,” Carole nods, and when they have about half of the boxes loaded, they stop for some frozen burritos that Carole’s heated up, which she serves along with some cantaloupe. 

“Back to carrying things,” Noah says as he finishes, and he watches Kurt pause after putting his plate and fork in the dishwasher. He understands, or thinks he does; the last meal he ate with his mom and Hannah in the old apartment didn’t register, but on Wednesday night, when they helped clean up, he still felt it. It doesn’t really matter how good the change is, it’s still a massive change. 

The Nav is nearly full when Burt gets home, and by the time Burt’s changed clothes and grabbed his own bag, they’ve packed the rest. The last things to be loaded are Kurt’s bag with his laptop and Puck’s backpack with his, and then Carole’s giving them each a hug. 

They climb into the Nav while Burt has his own snack or whatever, and by 6:30, they’re headed north on I-75, Kurt driving, though ten miles in, they’ll hit US-30 and go east. Noah spent nearly an hour on Wednesday evening mapping out their exact route and trying to find potential stopping points. It wasn’t strictly necessary, and he knows the details way too well, but it was a distraction from the way Finn didn’t come up the stairs, how they didn’t hear Finn in the kitchen, how Finn just wasn’t there. 

It takes almost two hours out of Lima to hit Mansfield, and that’s where they stop for dinner at a Bob Evans, just before getting on I-71. Kurt badgers Burt into getting something off the ‘Fit from the Farm’ menu, but Noah and Kurt both get huge burgers. The stop takes an hour, and when they climb back into the Nav, the clock reads 9:40. 

“Time for you to nap, K,” Noah says, and Kurt nods, grabbing a pillow and propping it against the window. Burt does the same, and for the next hour and a half, Noah pilots them up I-71, and across a stretch of I-76. It’s 11:30 by the time they clear Akron, and Kurt and Burt are both sleeping. Noah pulls into a McDonald’s drive-through just before midnight, and it’s one a.m. before they cross into Pennsylvania on I-80. Fifteen miles later, there’s a McDonald’s, a Burger King, and a gas station, all at one of the possible stops Noah’d evaluated, and Noah decides that he does need sleep. He pulls into the gas station and Burt rouses to fill the Nav, while Noah clears the trash they’ve accumulated and then goes inside to get coffee and candy for Kurt. 

 

The next thing Noah knows, Kurt’s parking the Nav in front of a Pilot Travel Center, and the clock reads four am. “Hey, sleepyhead,” Kurt teases him, and Noah grins.

“Where are we?”

“Mill Hall, Pennsylvania,” Kurt says wryly. “You want to drive, or should we let Dad?”

“Burt’s going to have to drive the entire way back himself,” Noah says, “so I’ll do it.”

Kurt nods and they walk into the Pilot together, getting coffee and snacks before heading back to the Nav. 

Kurt’s asleep before they get back on the interstate, and it’s only an hour before the sky starts getting lighter. By five-forty-five, Noah’s scrambling to find his sunglasses, and the sun bursts over the horizon just after six am, straight into his eyes. 

They cross the state line into New Jersey thirty minutes later, and Noah’s stomach starts to rumble. There’s not much along that stretch of I-80, though, and Kurt and Burt are still sleeping, so Noah drives, keeping one eye on the billboards. 

Kurt’ll drive again after breakfast, because it’s not really much farther, and that means this is probably the last time Noah’s going to drive the Nav. Given the cost of parking in New York City, Noah thinks it’s likely he’s never going to own a car. Rent one, sure, but own one? He can’t predict the future, but he can’t fathom a reason he would. 

They’re shedding the rest of Ohio, Noah can’t help but feel like, and while he knows all the reasons that Burt’s with them, Noah wishes there was a way that Burt didn’t have to be. 

Thinking in general hasn’t been Noah’s favorite thing for a few weeks, and for the past seven days, it’s been awful. The extra shifts he took during the week helped, a little bit; all of the packing was a distraction. When Kurt talked to Burt and Carole on Saturday, they’d talked about how much fun Finn seemed to be having, and how many friends he was already making, and they’d had to listen to some variation on that topic from Carole almost every day. 

It really, really didn’t help. Not when they were left with something that felt suspiciously like a break-up, even though there was never anything official to end. Noah doesn’t want Finn to be miserable, he doesn’t, but hearing about how good things are doesn’t sound like fun, either. 

So they’ve not talked to Finn as much as they thought they would. It’s too hard in Lima, because in Lima, they aren’t supposed to need to text and call him so often. They’re supposed to just see him. 

Noah mentally reviews everything he researched and decides on the Cracker Barrel for breakfast, thirty miles into New Jersey, even though that’s another set of memories. Kurt and Burt both wake up as he exits the interstate. “Where are we?” Kurt asks with a yawn. 

“Mount Arlington. It’s about forty-five miles from here, is all.”

“Wow.” Kurt exhales. “Not far.”

Burt walks ahead of them to turn in their name, and Noah pulls Kurt towards him. They stand on the porch of the Cracker Barrel, arms wrapped around each other, until the speaker crackles out ‘Hummel, party of three’, and they head inside to eat.

Another stop at another gas station and Kurt has them back on I-80, and now they’re following the signs for the Lincoln Tunnel in. They get a glimpse of Manhattan before they enter the tunnel, and when they come up, they’re _there_. A turn onto 40th, another turn onto 8th, it becomes Central Park West, and Noah grins at Kurt. 

“We’re home,” he says quietly. 

“Yes, we are.” Kurt nods and grins back, and Noah notes the time on the clock. 9:45 am. 

 

It takes longer than they expect to meet the agent and then actually unload the Nav, because there isn’t a free parking spot anywhere near the apartment, and Burt announces that if they can figure out how to get food delivered for lunch, he’ll pay for it. 

Which is how they end up eating their first meal in their apartment on the floor, surrounded by unpacked boxes and luggage. When the last of the Chinese food has been consumed, they head to Ikea for the first of what Noah privately suspects will be four or more loads, not the three that Kurt’s hoping for. Still, Kurt has the list completely prioritized, which means that in theory, they’ll be sleeping in their own bed that night. 

Two trips to Brooklyn, another meal of take-out, and Saturday does end with them in their own bed. There’s still a ton of stuff to put together, but there’s a table to sit at, chairs to sit on, and a bed to sleep in, which Noah’s pretty sure means they’re doing okay, at least. 

On Wednesday morning, Noah gets up early and heads to work. His new manager apparently has a lot of people that take vacation at the beginning of August, because for the nearly two weeks before orientation starts, Noah will practically be working full-time. It works out nicely, actually, because Kurt’s going to have his ‘JumpStart’ thing during the day and some evenings, and the one thing Noah knows they haven’t quite figured out is how to be regular college students and still be together. They haven’t figured out how to do a lot of things long-term, actually, when he looks back at the last few months, and maybe they should have had a plan for all of it. 

Or maybe they just have to learn from it and try to move on. 

The biggest change at Starbucks is how many people are working. Noah shows up at opening and there are three people there, plus the manager, who spends fifteen minutes showing him around before Noah jumps in. Another person shows up while the manager’s talking to Noah, which makes five of them working. Noah’s so used to doing all the possible jobs; to _just_ take orders or _just_ make drinks seems bizarre at first, and he figures it will for at least a few days. 

Noah gets assigned to make drinks along with one other green–aproned worker, and when there’s a pause, she introduces herself. “Hi, I’m Elaine. You’re Noah?” After he nods, she continues. “Where’d you transfer from?”

“Lima, Ohio,” Noah says, smiling a bit ruefully. “The only Starbucks for miles. This is kind of strange to me; I used to open and work most of my shifts solo.”

Elaine makes a horrified face. “Wasn’t it stressful?”

“It’s not that busy,” Noah admits. “Even just one more person would have been bored most of the time.” 

“So what brings you to New York? College?” Noah nods. “I’m a student myself,” she continues. “Barnard, which is part of Columbia. I’m an astrophysics major.”

“I took the last physics class I’ll ever have to take last year.” Noah laughs. 

“Not a science major, then.”

“No,” Noah agrees. “Composition, at Mannes.”

“That’s part of the New School?” Elaine smiles briefly. “Neat. So did you have a couple of weeks off?”

Noah laughs again. “No, I worked Friday until 2. We left around 6:30 that night and drove all night, switching off.” He shrugs. “Four days off isn’t bad.”

“What’d you do for the four days?” one of the other guys, who’s obviously been listening, asks. 

“More trips to Ikea than I know how to count,” Noah says with a grin. “Then assembling everything. Oh, we got our driver’s licenses changed and registered to vote, too.” He shrugs. “And by yesterday around noon we actually had to acquire groceries.”

“Who exactly is this ‘we’?” Elaine says jokingly. 

“Oh, my boyfriend,” Noah answers, and it’s startlingly relieving to just say it. His boyfriend, they live together, and there’s no tip-toeing around it. It’s doesn’t tell the complete story, but it tells a complete story, and it also hits him that Kurt was right, back in that PFLAG meeting: there’s always going to be someone else to come out to.

“Is he going to Mannes, too? Or another part of the New School?”

“No, Marymount Manhattan.” 

There’s a few nods and the conversation changes to other topics, a new restaurant and a bar that’s going to be closing. It ebbs and flows over the course of the shift, and no one asks any further questions of Noah. When the shift ends, Noah knows that Kurt’s still over at Marymount, so he decides to walk around the neighborhood a little. He finds two stores where they can get copies or have things printed, which are probably good to know about. There’s one of those hot yoga places, too, another grocery store, two more Starbucks, and a Pilates place. Apparently, their new neighborhood is great for caffeine and trendy workouts. 

Noah walks around longer than he realizes, because eventually his phone alerts him to an incoming text from Kurt. 

_I’m home!_

_Started walking around. Want me to grab dinner?_

A quick affirmative sends Noah looking for take-out along his route home, and he finally settles on Indian, along with another stop at a Starbucks for both of them. 

“How was it?” Noah asks a few minutes later, once they’re sitting on the futon under their lofted bed, watching television and eating yellow dal and naan. 

“Smaller than I expected,” Kurt says thoughtfully. “Granted, the incoming freshman class is only around five hundred, but there’s only 32 of us in this JumpStart thing. Ten of them are New York City natives.” He shrugs. “But Victoria is here, actually.” 

“Yeah? Did her parents not freak at the idea?” Noah has to ask. 

“I suspect that they did, but I think she won them over by emphasizing how few people would be here initially, so that she’d be sure to get more individual guidance. Something like that.”

Noah snorts. “Hey, if it works.”

The days fall into a lazy routine of coffee, which seems to be the defining feature of life in New York for Noah: coffee at home, making coffee, coffee with Kurt, coffee in between songs while he plays the guitar and writes. He doesn’t even take Tuesday off, not yet; his new manager knows that Tuesday is the one day he absolutely must have off, normally, and frankly, she seems relieved that he wasn’t demanding Fridays or Saturdays as his hill to die on. 

Almost from the moment they arrived, it was a little easier to text Finn or call him. They do find out that Carole’s reports of Finn’s exciting busy life were somewhat exaggerated; either that, or Carole really thinks orientation sessions are very exciting. Noah’s not so sure that’s not the case. Either way, their communication with Finn starts to fall into a routine, too, and it’s not the same as having him there, and it’s not a substitute for what they had, but it is what they have, and like they’ve said. They’ll take what they can and hold on. 

The Monday morning that orientation starts, Noah walks to Starbucks with Kurt, hand in hand, and after Kurt goes to find the cross-town bus, Noah heads up Broadway to Mannes. 

Allison finds him, and then Ben, before the welcome in the auditorium; the three of them sit together and then eat a quick lunch together before they spend the afternoon in what Noah privately decides is ‘academic technology hell’. An hour plus of droning about ‘online and on-site communication to support courses and research’ is an hour more than he ever wanted, and then there’s another hour or so while they set up MyNewSchool accounts, which Noah’s pretty damned sure he could have done in ten minutes or less on his own computer sitting at home. 

After that, Allison drags Ben and him both to a tour of the university art collection, after which Noah mercifully escapes, grabs another cup of coffee, and heads home. Kurt’s supposed to head out the door by seven for some JumpStart activity and Noah’s going back down towards the rest of the New School campus for a movie night, but they manage forty-five minutes of dinner and talking, and when Noah gets home that night, he’ll climb into bed next to Kurt. 

In the morning, they’ll start again with more coffee.


End file.
